“Aila’s a strong, brave woman,” Bregnan agreed. “She’d whoop us and I have no doubt she’ll deliver herself of a beautiful baby.”
“I can’t take it,” Dagmar said, springing toward the back of the village. He burst into their home as the first tiny cries ripped through the air. He saw Aila on their bed, a huge smile on her face as she held his daughter, their daughter in her small hands.
“You’re the new father of a beautiful little Ceana Danga Stalson.”
“You named her after our mothers?”
“It seemed fitting, considering neither of them are here to enjoy her.”
Overcome, Dagmar simply sat down on the edge of the bed. He watched as Aila put his dark haired beauty to her breast. The new babe suckled easily and seemed so content with the world around her. Within what seemed like minutes, his own arms were full of sweet smelling baby. “I’ve never held a newborn before,” he whispered.
“Not even our siblings?” Aila asked, truly astonished. “I can just imagine what would have happened should my parents have had more.”
“You’re not thinking about more right now are you?”
“Not right now,” Aila chuckled. “My body is wrecked right now, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t entertain the thought in the future. I’m partial, but she’s gorgeous and I like the baby we’ve made together.”
“She was made with love,” Dagmar smiled. “Even if we didn’t know it at the time.”
“That she was,” Aila agreed.
The pair spent their lives loving each other and the people of Hail. The village thrived through the centuries, always choosing Dagmar and Aila’s descendants to rule. They taught through modesty and moderation, instilling in them the kindness that saw to the needs of the people before the needs or wants of the ruling family. Decades and centuries later if you were to look at the Pict people now, you would see that those same fundamental beginnings ring true, even now.
They have technologies now that weren’t available back then, things like working indoor plumbing, washers and dryers, cars, and the like. But beneath it all, you can look back to see through the generations that Aila and Dagmar’s children and grandchildren kept to the principles of Hail and it’s generous king and queen. To see their beginning you might not think that Aila and Dagmar would have made such a great ruling couple, but they came to complement each other in the most advantageous way. They’d come through mutual tragedy and found that through promised pleasure and by holding each other accountable to pleasure they were able to bare the pain that life sometimes sent their way.
Aila and Dagmar might not have lived a long time when compared with today’s lifespans, but their legacy, even now, lives on in the Scottish people. Everything from kilts and bagpipes to red hair and freckles, Scotland became the backdrop of a love story that would span the ages and go down in history as one of the most elegant and lovely stories of romance, war, and pleasure.
THE END
Desired By The Alien King
Meredith was groggy, her head felt as though it weighed a thousand pounds and each of her limbs was tingling with pins and needles. She struggled to open her eyes. Managing to open them just a crack she squinted against the harsh overhead light.
“Hello?” The light bounced off the white walls and ricocheted around the empty room. Meredith lay in a crumpled heap, her knee length cotton nightgown pooling around her. “Hello? Is anybody there?” Her questions were met with nothing but silence. She opened her eyes fully, blinking rapidly as she adjusted to the effusion of light from above.
The room was completely empty with the exception of her corpulent body sitting directly in its center. Each of the walls was solid, painted white and there was no indication whatsoever of a door or window. Meredith looked down at her bare feet. How had she got here? And more to the point, where was here?
Outside the room there was a frantic scurrying of feet. The Kalar foot soldiers shuffled quickly about as they made preparations for their king’s celebration. Meredith’s muffled shouts barely made it through the thick walls and even when they did, they went unnoticed by her preoccupied abductors.
“Would someone please tell me what’s going on?” Silence. “If you kidnapped me for money you’re going to be really disappointed!” Her fear had given way to anger. Shielding her eyes she looked up at the ceiling, it was only moments before she found what she was looking for – a small camera. She stared directly at it. “I don’t know who you are, but you could at least do me the courtesy of a glass of water!” She glared at the camera, tangles of her long blonde hair sticking to the side of her face. A few moments later the sound of movement came, it was followed by the sliding open of a small hatch at the bottom of one of the walls. Meredith watched in amazement as a small robot came towards her offering a glass of water. She took it, sniffed it and presuming that it was safe, drank the whole glass. “Thank you.” She wasn’t sure why she was thanking the machine, but she found herself doing it nonetheless. The robot stood with its arm held outward and as soon as Meredith placed her empty glass back in its hand, it rolled back in to the wall. The hatch closed and Meredith was once again alone.
Behind the controls of the small camera sat a relatively short for his species and slender Kalar guard. His tanned sucker tipped fingers nudged the camera control stick once in a while as he zoomed in on Meredith’s pale white face. He couldn’t help but stare, he’d never seen anyone from the planet Earth in person before. Sure, there were rumors that some of the more wealthy Kalarians had human brides, but even working in the palace he had never seen one for himself. He wondered if all Earth women were so round.
“Placan?” The guard turned from his screen to find his shift relief standing behind him.
“Hmm?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Why do you stare at the King’s new bride?” Placan turned back to the camera and eyed Meredith.
“She is not his new bride yet, Tevar.” Tevar came closer to get a good look at the human woman.
“Soon she will be and your ogling will be punishable by death.” Placan knew this, but there was something about the human woman that drew him in. She was so different to the Kalarians.
“Do you ever wonder what it is like to live on another planet, Tevar?” They both stared at Meredith now as she seemed to stare back, her blue eyes fixated on the camera lens.
“No. I am happy to live on Kalar.” Placan frowned, he couldn’t be the only one who imagined the possibilities of living outside of the King’s reign. “You should go now,” Tevar nudged the chair, “there are many preparations to be made.” Tevar turned to Placan, his face a blank canvas. Placan nodded.
As the pins and needles finally subsided, Meredith carefully got to her feet. She walked cautiously forward toward the bare walls. There had to be some way to get out.
“Hello?” She pressed her body against the wall in hopes of finding a door of some sort. “I know you can hear me!” The truth was, however, that Tevar couldn’t hear her anymore, the camera peering in to her room had been muted. Meredith pushed her whole body weight against each of the four walls methodically, finding nothing. “Seriously? You know that this is illegal, right? I am gonna sue your asses off!” She looked up at the camera and gave the middle finger before walking over to the corner and sitting directly underneath it. If no one was going to do her the courtesy of answering her, then she would force them to come to her.
Meredith wasn’t sure exactly who her captors were and while the idea of luring them in would likely terrify anyone else, it only served to make her angry. The least anyone could do after locking you in a door-less room was let you know who they were without your having to trick them in to coming to you.
Placan’s comm device beeped shrilly.
“This is Placan…” There was static before Tevar’s voice broke through.
“…needed to check the human woman…” Placan felt his heart beginning to race at the thought of actual contact with a human.
“Repeat that, please, Tevar.”
“You are needed to check the human woman…she is no longer visible on the security camera. Then secure her for her meeting with the king.” Placan smiled, he was going to get to see the human woman himself!
“Of course, Tevar. I will be there shortly.” Placan had never interacted with a human of any kind before, but he found something appealing in the way that this one looked. She wasn’t tall and slender like the Kalarians, you couldn’t see the bony cage that framed her heart and the large mounds on her chest were like nothing any Kalarian female had. Placan wanted to touch them. He knew it would be a certain death sentence if he dared to, but something inside of him made him want to do it anyway. He found it hard to determine if his desires were merely wonderment or if they were driven by something else.
As Placan came to the sealed cell he looked around him to make sure that no one was watching. When he found the coast clear, he placed his long sucker tipped fingers against a touchpad on the door and paused as it vaporized. As he walked in to the room, the door reappeared behind him.
“What…” Meredith sat staring at Placan open mouthed. He cocked his head to the side as he stared back at her, just as mesmerized by her appearance as she was of his. Meredith squinted at his relatively tall frame and his obscenely long slender legs. “Who…what are you?” She had never seen anyone with such strange proportions before and as her eyes met his fingertips she couldn’t help but gasp. He was nothing like any thing she’d seen before either, but she refused to give in to her fear. Whatever he was she knew that he couldn’t possibly be what she suspected because aliens didn’t exist.
“I am Placan, royal guard to Obar king of the planet Kalar.” Meredith’s brow furrowed as she stared at his caramel colored skin.
“What?” she shook her head, “you want me to believe that I’ve been abducted by aliens?” She laughed loudly, “Yeah, okay. This is the stupidest joke ever and your costume isn’t even that good. When my dad finds out who you are, you are going to be fucked. Now tell me who you are really.” Placan stared at the redness that was rising in Meredith’s cheeks.
“I am Placan…”
“Yeah, I know, I know, of the royal guard of whatever the hell it was. Seriously though, let me out of here and I might not even tell my dad about it.” Placan shook his head slowly as he stared in to her mesmerizing blue eyes.
“It is more than my job is worth to release you, Earth woman. You are to be king Obar’s bride and I will surely be cast in to oblivion if I allow you escape.” Meredith stared in to his large brown eyes in disbelief.
“Wait a minute…you’re telling me that not only are you an alien and I’ve been abducted to your planet, but you are marrying me off to your king?” She burst in to laughter, the sound shocking Placan. He blinked slowly.
“Yes. You will be very happy, I am sure of it.” He wasn’t sure of it, not really, but he had heard that the other wives of the king were satisfied with their life. Part of him however, hoped that Meredith wouldn’t be because he wanted her for himself. Meredith stood up and walked towards Placan. Placan looked at her uncertainly, Earth women certainly were strange creatures with their short shapely legs and their pale white skin.
“Okay, this has been great, really, but seriously...” She pinched at the tan skin on Placan’s long slender forearm, it puckered for a moment before sinking back against the bone of his arm. Meredith frowned and reached up to his face, Placan flinched. Meredith pinched both of his hollow cheeks and attempted to pull them away from his bony skull. When the skin snapped back in to place, Meredith’s eyes widened and she stared at Placan, horrified. His massive eyes stared right back at her quizzically. “You…” she pulled her hands back, her fists balled up. “You’re not wearing a costume…” Placan shook his head.
“On my planet we do not wear costumes like you humans do, just simple robes…” Placan reached his long fingers forward and fingered the sleeve of Meredith’s nightgown. Meredith stepped backward, a look of horror on her face as she looked him up and down. She had never seen a creature with eyes as large as his, they were twice the size they should have been and she couldn’t help but stare in to them.
“Why am I here?” This time her voice shook with uncertainty.
“You have been chosen to wed Obar, King of the planet Kalar.” Meredith shook her head.
“I know, you said that…but it doesn’t make any sense. There are billions of people to choose from on planet Earth, there have to be billions of people on planet…Kalam too? Why doesn’t he just marry one of you? Why drag me in to this?”
“Kalar, it is planet Kalar.” Placan couldn’t understand why she was not honored to be chosen as the king’s bride like all of the others had been. Instead she seemed almost panicked by her selection. “The king has chosen you, this is a great honor.” Meredith shook her head, great honor or not, there was no way it was going to happen. Even back on Earth Meredith had had her doubts about marriage, and now she was being asked to marry someone from a different planet who she had never met? It was never going to happen.
“Why has the king chosen me? I didn’t even know that he existed so how could he possibly have chosen me?” Placan had never faced a situation quite like this before and he found her unique resistance to be quite intriguing.
“King Obar is aware of all planets in the universe. It is his mission to take a wife from each of these planets to foster trade relations. You have been selected by the king himself to represent the planet Earth.” Meredith slumped down against the wall, shaking her head slowly from side to side. It was like a bad dream, none of it made sense.
“Wait a minute…” She replayed their conversation in her head, “Now I’m going to become part of some harem so that your king can foster trade relations? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard!” She could feel her body shaking with a mix of anger and fear, “That is not how things work on Earth and I am not going to be bullied in to it on Kalam either!”
“Kalar…” Placan interjected.
“Kalar, whatever you call it. I don’t know how your king got my number, but I’d appreciate it if you told him I wasn’t interested. I’d like to go home now.” She tried her very best to hide her fear as she ordered the creature before her to take her home. Placan however, could hear her heart rate beginning to race and his own anxiety began to pick up. If he was responsible for causing the king’s new bride to have second thoughts about the marriage it would most certainly be his head. He began to wish that he had never stepped foot in to the cell in the first place.
“It is an honor to be chosen by the king…” Meredith glared at Placan and he shut his mouth knowing better than to finish his sentence.
“It may be an honor on your planet, but on my planet this is called abduction and I don’t want to get married, to your king or anyone else for that matter.” Her heart was racing so much faster than anything Placan had heard before. He took a step forward and leaning down he placed the suckers on his fingertips against her bare arm. Meredith felt the smoothness of his fingers on her skin, but more than that, the touch of his fingertips brought with it a peace. Meredith took a deep breath, her heart rate slowing down. “I am sure you are just trying to do your job…but this is…” she couldn’t think of the words to describe what she wanted to say, “illegal.” She wondered if the term even had any meaning here.
“This is not what you desire?” Placan asked as he cocked his head curiously to the side, she shook her head.
“I just want to go home.” Tears welled up in her eyes and Placan nodded. He didn’t know a thing about the women from Earth, but he knew about compassion and he knew about fear. Meredith was afraid and there was nothing he could do for her but give her compassion.
“There is nothing to be afraid of…” Placan lowered his head to look in to her tear filled eyes.
“That is easy for you to say, you aren’t supposed to be marrying the king of some totally random planet that you didn’t know e
xisted until a few minutes ago.” The tears were now overflowing and sliding down her cheeks. Placan brought his face close to hers, he could feel the coolness of her skin radiating towards him.
“Do not be afraid.” Leaning in, Placan placed a kiss on her cheek. Her skin was much cooler than he had imagined it would be and it tasted of salt. He attempted to give her a smile but found his own sadness robbing him of the ability, this confused him. He had never been so close to someone that their emotions became his own and it made him want to give her everything that she desired.
The door to the cell vaporized and as Tevar stepped inside, Placan jumped backward away from Meredith.
“Placan, why are you taking so long to secure the prisoner?” A large furrow in Tevar’s oversized forehead conveyed his anger.
“I am doing so now, Tevar. My apologies.” Tevar stared down at Meredith as she sat in the corner wiping her cheeks with the sleeve of her nightgown.
“You will do so quickly, the king is becoming impatient.” He shifted his gaze to Placan before placing his hand against the wall where the door had been, waiting for the door to vaporize and disappearing through the space that it left behind.
“What does he mean ‘secure the prisoner?’” Meredith looked at Placan questioningly. “Where are we going?” Her anger now completely gave way to fear.
“I have been ordered to take you to the king, he would like to meet you before the ceremony.” Meredith’s eyes widened.
“Ceremony? I’m supposed to marry this guy today?” She jumped to her feet, “No, no, no, you have to help me!” The panic began to rise and Placan could hear her heart racing once again. Stepping over to the wall where Tevar has been moments ago, she pressed her hand against it. Nothing happened. She stepped over to her left and tried again, she was desperate for escape. When nothing happened the second time she looked to Placan, desperation in her eyes.
Highlander's Love: Winter Solestice (Against All Odds Series 3) Page 34